Leaders and associates from Amazon’s CVG facilities volunteered at the Freestore Foodbank Thursday to help combat food insecurity in local communities.
Amazon employees worked with the Freestore team to re-stock its onsite market, helping children and families who need emergency food support, where meals are distributed annually to low-income households across 611 community partners in 20 counties throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.
To support the mission of Freestore Foodbank, senior operations manager Tom Stompe announced that Amazon was also donating $100,000 to the food bank, which will be used to help eliminate hunger.
Cincinnati Mayor, Aftab Pureval, also made a guest appearance to underscore the partnership between Amazon and Freestore Foodbank, in addition to noting the importance of building long-term, innovative programs that have a lasting, positive impact with community partners.
“On behalf of the City, I want to express our gratitude for Amazon’s continued investment in addressing food insecurity,” said Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati Mayor. “Through the support of organizations like Freestore Foodbank, this partnership is making a tangible, life-altering impact on some of our most underserved neighbors.”
The nonprofit organization is the largest emergency food and services provider to children and families in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana. The FreestoreFoodbank has been working in the community for over 50 years helping to close the gap of food insecurity as well as supporting individuals stay on the path to financial stability and a better life for at-risk families.
Freestore Foodbank President and CEO Kurt Reiber accepted the donation on behalf of the organization and said the funds would support its long-term mission of making a positive impact on the individuals served, their families, and our communities.
In 2024, more than 47 million meals were provided to the community through Freestore Foodbank, including its Bea Taylor Market’s 1.3 million meals served to nearly 9,000 households in counties across the tristate area. In partnership with Amazon, the organization’s Freestore Direct served over 350,000 meals to 1,000+ households with a reliable source of healthy, filling food for underserved community members. According to Freestore Foodbank, 250,000+ people in the tristate are food insecure; and 1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger across Greater Cincinnati.
In addition to the donation, Amazon has partnered with Freestore Foodbank to help alleviate hunger through its Amazon Community Delivery program, which is designed to donate the company’s logistics network to support food banks and community organizations—delivering groceries and pre-packaged meals directly to vulnerable families and those disproportionately impacted by the first wave of the pandemic. Using Amazon’s transportation network of delivery service partners, deliveries now total more than 30 million meals to underserved families, vulnerable seniors, and school children in more than 25 U.S. cities—including Freestore Foodbank, where Amazon has helped move over 1.5 million meals to at-risk residents on behalf of the Cincinnati nonprofit organization since 2021.
Amazon’s Tom Stompe said he and his team at Amazon were proud to volunteer and help fight hunger in the Greater Cincinnati community.
“Amazon has a longstanding commitment to addressing right now needs—with over millions in donations to homelessness, hunger, and disaster relief across the country,” said Tom Stumpe, Amazon Senior Operations Manager. “We are proud to support Freestore Foodbank and are committed to playing our part by helping increase food access to underserved communities and donating delivery services to help community organizations get meals to the doorsteps of people in need.”
This donation is part of Amazon’s ongoing commitment to fighting right now needs, which include increasing access to food, shelter, and basic goods for children and their families. According to Hunger & Poverty in America, about 1 in 7 households (13.5 percent) experienced food insecurity, or lack of access to an affordable, nutritious diet. An estimated 47.4 million Americans lived in these households. This year, Amazon and Freestore Foodbank are working to make sure that many children and their families in our community do not struggle with the daily challenges of food insecurity.
Amazon